Bus

Stertil-Koni makes equipment investments to boost production

To meet escalating customer demand for its range of heavy duty vehicle lifts, Stertil-Koni boosted its manufacturing capacity and implemented key enhancements in its overall production processes to further speed delivery times.

The move is the most recent in a series of capital and workforce investment initiatives by Stertil-Koni to increase both productivity and efficiency.

The ST 1085 series features a lifting capacity of 18,500 lbs. per column and is equipped with extra-long adjustable pick-up forks of 14 inches — well suited to safely raise all types of vehicles, including those with super single tires. In addition, the width between the lifting forks is adjustable, so that vehicles with variable wheel diameters can be lifted safely and easily.

“The ST 1085 also features a Multi Master System, equipped with a control box on each individual mobile lifting column,” Bowers added. “In that way, lifting columns can be operated individually, in pairs or a complete set with the touch of a single button. Customers also appreciate that all columns are interchangeable, so they can be used at multiple locations.”

In July 2013, Stertil-Koni announced that its manufacturing facility in Streator, Ill., purchased and installed a new Okuma MILLAC Vertical Machining Center. The result has been to substantially speed the fabrication process while simultaneously increasing precision in a broad range of the company’s heavy duty lifts, including mobile column lifts, platform lifts, its U.S. patented, ultra-shallow, full-rise in-ground scissor lifting system, ECOLIFT, and its full-rise telescopic piston lift, DIAMOND LIFT.

In April 2013, Stertil-Koni also unveiled a new cutting machine that utilizes a combination of plasma and oxy-fuel torches coupled with a PC-based touch screen controller for quick, high-precision manufacturing.

The pilots will include a combination of dedicated bus-only lanes that take bus riders out of car congestion, technology to time traffic signals so that buses get more green lights, and platforms that allow riders to “level-board” the bus quickly as they would a subway.

The MetroHealth Line was developed as part of a naming rights agreement between RTA and The MetroHealth System, executed earlier this year, to rebrand the No. 51 family of routes. Those routes have the second highest bus ridership after the HealthLine.